Losing faith in Acronis

[TAPtech]

I've been using Acronis True Image 2013 for disk cloning operations. Lately I've been having too many problems.

Can someone recommend a better program for cloning hard drives? It would be nice if I could get disk partition tools as well, either in the same program or another program from the same company.

 

[glricht]

I've been using Acronis True Image 2013 for disk cloning operations. Lately I've been having too many problems.

It would help if we knew what you meant by "too many problems". Running too slow? Clone operation doesn't finish? What?

I've been using Acronis True Image for about 8-9 years and it's worked pretty well for me (especially 2014 version). Though must admit that the GUI can be a pain sometimes.

 

[TAPtech]

-The past few hard drives I have needed to run startup repair. Not a big deal.

-One drive cloned fine but QuickBooks was borked..?

-The most recent drive has some weird issues. Windows pops up as non-genuine, machine will not sleep/resume properly. Very odd.

It seems to me that Acronis is meant more for personal backup and not really professional drive cloning. Maybe it's operator error

 

[Larry Sabo]

I've been using AOMEI Backupper for drive images/cloning more and more often, and I especially like it for cloning because when I clone with Acronis, I have to reboot the system withing a number (10?) of seconds or the clone will be cancelled. I don't have that problem with Backupper. Plus, it's very fast, feature-rich, and has a decent GUI. Their procedure for selecting/creating target folders/files for the image really suck, though. Acronis wins there. (I use ATI Home 2010 PlusPack, and understand later versions get progressively worse).

I also regularly use AOMEI Partition Assistant for partition management. Both programs are free for personal and commercial use and work like a charm. Their website makes it seem like you need to have the Techincian version if you're using it on client systems, but my reading of the EULA concludes otherwise.

 

[phaZed]

ddrescue - Linux - Never had a problem, always works. The only issue is the drive on the other end.

The hardware that you use will have an effect on how well the machine responds to controller faults and drive resets.

 

[Romaniac]

Macrium Reflect. I'm surprised it's not mentioned more.

 

[CompConfig]

I agree, I love Macrium Reflect and have been using it for a few years. Acronis is also very good. QuickBooks will normally get messed up and need to be reinstalled. Only backup quick books data. Because of the licencing it has to be reinstalled.

 

[Moltuae]

Yep, Macrium Reflect here too.

Used it almost exclusively for probably 5 years or more.

Very reliable and, for me, a big plus is the command line control options.

 

[pceinc]

We purchased Ghost Enterprise many years ago and still use it today. Well worth the cost at the time. We recently purchased Acronis for the universal restore tools and have cloned some drives with it. Have not had any issues.

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

ddrescue - Linux - Never had a problem, always works. The only issue is the drive on the other end.

The hardware that you use will have an effect on how well the machine responds to controller faults and drive resets.

This is the only program I have used in over a year with zero issues. I typically boot to Parted Magic and run it from there. Parted Magic was once free, but is now a paid product, but very affordable.

 

[gunslinger]

I use redo backup. I was a big proponent of Acronis for years but after around 2011 it seemed to start having issues for me.

 

[Tom_Sand]

I have been using Miray HDClone for about 3 years and never had a fault.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I still find that the Acronis True image "WD" edition or "Seagate" edition that you download from their site to be the most reliable.

It's free....download the latest version often, keep both versions installed on our "bench rig" that we clone from. And latest versions CDs.

FYI...when you clone a HDD that has Quickbooks installed, you'll usually get that error saying something like "Could not initialize license properties". When you install Quickbooks and register it, it creates a license file with a hash on it based on hardware on the computer. New HDD...new hardware. Borks the hash. It's easy to fix....just delete the EntitlementDataStore.ecml file...launch Quickbooks...it will recreate it. Done!

http://support.quickbooks.intuit.com/support/Articles/HOW12406

 

[DanB]

clonezilla

Clonezilla. It is my go to. Also you can pull individual files out of it by mounting the image.
You can download the livecd. It is also part of parted magic which is a great tool, although it takes a while to load these days.

 

[CompConfig]

Thanks Stonecat! I did not know that about Quick Books, I use PC mover pretty often and I just leave QBs off the list and reinstall. I will try that next time.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

Think I've only had had acronis fail once or twice on my older version. Might try backupper. Never learned to use dd. I thought I heard the new version on parted magic they actually have a gui?

 

[TAPtech]

StoneCat- great knowledge, thank you for sharing!

So guys, I'm a bit embarrassed. This most recent problem was due to cloning from a non-AF to an AF drive. The drives were both WD blacks, one 320GB and the new one 750GB. I thought it would be easy-peasy!

Any how, I am wondering if my other issues were due to similar non-AF to AF.

Here's the fix: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&ProdId=2101&DwnldID=22194

Also mentioned this a recent post by NYJimbo, hopefully it helps him out.

Thank you guys for all of the software recommendations. I'll keep this post in mind.

I have invested a little into the Acronis lineup. The disk partition management tools are OK and good to have for expanding volumes and such. I'll stick it out with Acronis for a bit longer and see if I have any problems.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

Check into getting Parted Magic, what is the download these days like 5 dollars I think? Very powerful set of tools for the money. Linux based, but powerful, has disk cloning features, gparted for working on partitions, password reset tools, etc.

 

[phaZed]

I didn't know Parted Magic went to a purchase model. No thanks. I still run the free version of PM over PXE, guess that won't be upgraded. I run Kali Linux (Formerly Backtrack) which is a pen testing setup. It has all of the tools that Parted Magic has and more.. I think GParted was missing, but that is easily added (for free, obviously) from the Package Manager. Can be run from the CD too, like most Linux variants. Good luck Parted Magic, they're gonna need it!

 

[Galdorf]

The new HDClone 5 can do that i find it's fastest and has data recovery abilities.